Utica sanctioned for aid violations

Utica College has become the latest institution with a Division
III hockey program to be sanctioned by the NCAA, it was announced
Thursday. In a situation similar to numerous findings
affecting other programs over the previous few seasons, the NCAA
Division III Committee on Infractions found that the college failed
to monitor aspects of its financial aid programs which resulted in
student-athletes receiving aid at a rate incongruent with that
received by the general student body.

According to the NCAA, the disproportionate awardance of aid
stemmed from Utica failing to monitor its Canadian International
Student Award (CISA) program. The CISA program, initiated in
2010, was aimed at making the college more attractive to Canadians
so as to help the school expand its geographic footprint. The
NCAA acknowledged that Utica consulted it to ensure that the
program was in compliance with its financial aid rules and
regulations, and stated it "advised the college to make the funds
available to all prospective students using the same standard, to
carefully monitor the impact of the financial aid and to act
proactively if any problems arise."

According to the NCAA, during the 2010-11 academic year Utica
awarded the aid to five students, all of whom were member's of the
men's ice hockey team; while in the 2011-12 academic year 11
students received the award, including six men's ice hockey
players, one women's ice hockey player and one baseball player.

Unlike in other recent cases of similar nature, the NCAA noted
that Utica's lack of monitoring of the aid program was intentional
"because the college did not want athletics participation to be a
consideration in the financial aid process." In a release of its
own (full text follows), Utica specifies that the school ceased the
CISA initiative in 2011.

According to the official announcement from the NCAA, Utica's
full list of sanctions is as follows:

Public reprimand and censure.

Two years of probation, from August 29, 2013 through August 28,
2015.

A postseason ban for any of the college’s teams whose
rosters include one or more student-athletes receiving CISA
awards.

Request of a Level Two review from the NCAA Committee on
Financial Aid. During this review, the committee looks
closely at an institution’s policies and procedures for
awarding aid, as well as the impact of those factors on aid
received by student-athletes.

Utica College has also issued a statment concerning the
matter. Full text follows:

During the 2009-2010 academic year, Utica College undertook
an initiative to increase its enrollment of Canadian students, as
part of a larger effort to further expand the College's growing
geographic footprint. The College was strongly positioned in
regards to its academic and extracurricular programs to meet
particular needs and interests of Canadian students, and allocated
additional financial aid specifically targeting Canadian students
in select degree programs.

The College recognized at that time that this initiative, if
not implemented and administered properly, placed the institution
at possible risk of falling out of compliance with NCAA regulations
concerning financial aid for student-athletes. For this reason, the
College sought advice from NCAA compliance officials and other
sources when structuring this initiative so to address this risk
and provide safeguards we believed then were sufficient.
Regretfully, these safeguards were not sufficient.

From 2009 to 2011, the College awarded a small number of
institutional grants to Canadian students, a disproportionate
number of which were awarded to students participating in
intercollegiate athletics. While this activity was non-deliberate,
we nevertheless take full responsibility, and do not take our
shortcoming lightly.

The College proactively ceased this initiative in 2011,
including grants previously awarded. For the past two years we have
been working closely with the NCAA to re-examine our financial aid
award activity during the period in which the initiative was in
effect. Utica College remains committed to expanding access to
Canadian students, a population the College remains uniquely
positioned to serve. However, we will consider resuming this
initiative only at such time that we are confident that our
processes have been unequivocally corrected. The sanctions imposed
today by the NCAA and the measures the College has previously
adopted to ensure a more efficient monitoring system are components
of that corrective process.

As an institution that has taken extraordinary pride
in fostering and promoting the values of Division III athletics, we
remain unswerving in our dedication to the highest principles of
fair play. As such, we do not challenge these corrective sanctions;
rather, we view them as an opportunity for
improvement.